Has Kia become cool?
It sure looks like it.
The company has a neat looking little car coming out soon called the Soul, which already is getting good reviews as a competitor for the youthful Scion products from Toyota.
And Kia's Sorento SUV has been named one of five cars "for the next four years" by Edmunds.com.
Although it's not a trend-setter, the Sorento is a pleasant, well-built, capable SUV that embodies Kia's new slogan: "The Power To Surprise."
Our test model was a 2008 Kia Sorento EX 4x4 painted Spicy Red with a gray interior. Base price was $26,195, with standard features such as a 262-horsepower, 3.8-liter V-6 and five-speed automatic, full-length side curtain airbags, electronic stability control, traction control, air conditioning, cruise control, power equipment and a dual center console.
Options included alloy wheels, leather, sunroof, dual zone climate control, automatic headlamps, chrome outside door handles, a rear spoiler and full-time torque on demand four-wheel drive. That brought the final price to $30,095.
Driving an SUV isn't always a pleasurable experience for me because I usually dislike the typical high driving position, ponderous handling and slow acceleration.
But for the most part, the Sorento was free of those characteristics. It is one of the easiest to handle SUVs I've driven. It's modest in size, so parking is not a big issue. And though the Sorento has body-on-frame construction that usually makes for rattles and a feeling of looseness, none of that was an issue with this SUV.
Though I did not get a chance to test it off-road, I'm told by sources I trust that the Sorento does quite well. With the engine combination the test model had, there's a maximum tow rating of 5,000 pounds.
The nice thing about the interior of the Sorento is that everything is so logically laid out, with buttons and controls falling easily to hand -- no stretching or reaching needed. Dials are large and legible, too. The interior itself was even handsome, with fabrics and materials blending together nicely with no rough spots. The only demerit was a bit too much hard plastic here and there.
The Sorento seats six, so if you want more room in a Kia model your best bet will be the larger Borrego, another attractive option.
Among the few problems I had with the Sorento was that the second seat doesn't fold as flat as I would like for easy loading and unloading. A good number of the Sorento's competitors have that.
I also found that the Sorento needs more braking power in emergency situations. It was fine during normal driving, but stopping doesn't come either firmly or quickly enough when you slam on the brakes to avoid a mishap.
Fuel mileage also is likely to be a concern for many people -- it's rated at 15 mpg in the city and 20 on the highway. There are competitors that do better than that.
Safety ratings, however, are a strong point with the Sorento -- five stars for driver and passenger frontal crash ratings and five stars for front and rear seat protection in a side crash rollover tests netted a four-star rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Don Hammonds
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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